Workplace needs
to become safer

WORKERS in Wigan are being urged to focus on safety in their work place.

The plea comes after nine people lost their lives at work last year, one case in Wigan borough, according to figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

More than 1,000 people suffered major injury, 85 of those within Wigan while a further 4,086 had injuries that kept them off work for three days, 369 of them in Wigan last year.

David Snowball, HSE’s Director for the North, is urging employers to make worker safety their top priority for 2013.

He said: “Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers who failed to come home from work spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of the loved ones who are not there to enjoy it with them.

“Hundreds of other workers who have had their lives changed by major injury will be experiencing difficulties of their own.

“Health and safety in the workplace needs to be taken seriously. I hope that in 2013 employers will tackle the real rather than the trivial dangers that workers face and not mire themselves in pointless paperwork so we can reduce the number of workplace deaths and major injuries.”

Nationwide, the figures show that six in every million workers were killed while at work between April 2011 and March 2012.

High-risk industries include construction which had 49 deaths last year, agriculture had 33, manufacturing 31 and waste and recycling with five deaths.

Information on tackling health and safety dangers in the workplace is available from www.hse.gov.uk